Constructional toy elements

ABSTRACT

A constructional toy element connectable in edge-to-edge relationship via a snap-fit to another such toy element to form a constructional toy, the toy element being of two-part construction comprising an at least partially hollow interior, edge portions of the element including respectively opposite male and female bearing surfaces in which either or both is formed on a resiliently deformable tongue formed integrally with one or other half of the constructional toy element whereby adjacent such toy elements may be interconnected together via a snap-fit.

TECHNICAL FIELD

This invention relates to constructional toys made from constructional toy elements connected together in edge-to-edge relationship.

BACKGROUND

In GB2294207 (“D1”) there is shown and described a polygonal toy element made from solid plastics material in which each major outer edge of the polygon, which may be a triangle, square or any other suitable multi-sided shape, is provided with connection means in the form of hinge pips and respective hinge sockets by which adjacent such polygonal elements may be joined together in edge-to-edge relationship via a snap-fit. This is made possible by the resiliently deformable nature of the plastics material in which the distance between respectively opposite hinge pips and hinge sockets can be momentarily increased in order to allow for insertion therebetween of correspondingly shaped hinge sockets and hinge pips of an adjacent toy element. As will be appreciated, the ability of the plastics material to bend sufficiently to allow such snap-fit engagement is somewhat limited unless a relatively soft plastics material is used, but this has the disadvantage in that it limits the rigidity of the completed constructional toy and/or requires manufacture of such toy elements to very fine dimensional tolerances. The D1 patent teaches how this problem can be at least partially solved by the use of slotted sections between respectively opposite pairs of projecting hinge pips and sockets so that they can be more easily elastically deformed when being connected to an adjacent constructional toy element. As a consequence, the constructional toy elements can be made of relatively hard plastics material which is also hard wearing and therefore suitable for continuous use by e.g. schoolchildren. However, this necessarily increases the cost and complexity of manufacture and can be wasteful of the plastics material where each such toy element is made of solid plastics material in order to simplify the manufacturing process of what are essentially small constructional toy elements that can be easily handled and manipulated by children.

The present invention is derived from the realisation that the foregoing disadvantages can be obviated by adopting a different type of hinge pip and/or socket connection that allows for the manufacture of an essentially hollow constructional toy element which nevertheless has very precisely formed hinge pip and socket surfaces.

SUMMARY

According to the invention there is provided a constructional toy element connectable in edge-to-edge relationship via a snap-fit to another such toy element to form a constructional toy, the toy element being of two-part construction comprising an at least partially hollow interior, edge portions of the element including respectively opposite male and female bearing surfaces in which either or both is formed on a resiliently deformable tongue formed integrally with one or other half of the constructional toy element whereby adjacent such toy elements may be interconnected together via a snap-fit.

With this arrangement, the whole of moveable hinge pip or hinge socket is formed integrally with one or other half of the constructional toy element such that when both halves are permanently joined together, such as by ultrasonic welding, at least one of the pips or sockets are already fully formed with smooth, contiguous bearing surfaces which cooperate with bearing surfaces of another such toy element to form smooth hinge joints therebetween irrespective of the quality of the join connecting each half of the constructional toy element. This concept of separating out the formation of at least one of the bearing surfaces, such as the pips, so that they are fully-formed with one or other half of the constructional toy element has the further advantage in that the quality of the hinge joint does not depend upon the quality of the join between each half of the toy element, which may therefore be made to a manufacturing standard acceptable for handling by children without causing injury but which would otherwise be unsuitable for meeting the tolerances required for a smoothly working pip and socket hinge joint. Thus, the presence of minor imperfections such as unwanted sprue around the external edges of the toy element during manufacture, whilst being undesirable, does not compromise the ability of each such toy element to be connected to another such toy element via a smooth snap-fit because at least one of the respective bearing surfaces for each hinge joint are already preformed before each half of the toy element is joined to the other. More significantly, however, the absence of a welded joint in the moveable bearing surfaces means that they are less likely to fail as a result of repetitive bending.

A further advantage of the invention is that the interior of each such constructional toy element may be largely hollow, thus providing cost and weight savings as compared to the prior art D1 arrangement in which a single injection moulding technique is used to form a solid toy element in which all of the bearing surfaces of the toy element are formed at the same time, with the inherent risk of sprue occurring across the hinge pip and/or socket joint bearing surfaces during the moulding process.

A still further advantage of the invention is that by adopting a two-part configuration, one half may be of a different colour to the other such that, for example, there may be a plain half, such as white or black, used for a common side representing the “inside” of a subsequently constructed toy, and the other side may be coloured red, green, blue or any other colour for the toy, representing the “outside” of the toy. This concept has the advantage for the manufactures in that a common colour such as white or black can be used for one half of every toy element, with a range of toy halves of true colour being available from which required colours can be chosen according to demand, thereby taking advantages of economies of scale.

BRIEF DESCRIPTION OF THE DRAWINGS

The invention will now be described, by way of example only, with reference to the accompanying drawings in which:

FIG. 1 is a plan view of a substantially square polygonal constructional toy element according to a preferred embodiment of the prior art shown in D1,

FIG. 2 is a plan view of a substantially square polygonal constructional toy element made according to the invention, and

FIG. 3 is a perspective sectional view of part of the toy element of FIG. 2 showing a hinge pip arrangement according to the invention.

DETAILED DESCRIPTION

Turning firstly to FIG. 1 there is shown a generally square polygonal element 1 having on each major side thereof a corner abutment 2 and a side abutment 3 shaped and sized to be received by and between corresponding abutments of an identical such element 1 (not shown) in edge-to-edge relationship, being secured thereto and therewithin via a hinge socket 4 (shown in broken outline) in the corner abutment 2 and a hinge pip 5 extending from the opposite face of the side abutment 3. The side abutment 3 includes opposite the hinge pip 5 a flat end face 6 co-operable with a corresponding end face of an adjoining toy element 1 such that each such flat end face 6 acts as a stationary thrust surface against which an oppositely disposed thrust surface of an adjacent constructional toy element may be positioned.

Between the flat end face 6 and the hinge pip 9 of the side abutment 3 is a substantially “T” shaped slot 7 which essentially acts as a spring allowing resiliently deformable compression of the side abutment 3 in the longitudinal direction between the hinge socket 4 and the hinge pip 5. This prior art arrangement allows oppositely orientated toy elements 1 to be interconnected by means of a snap-fit in which the hinge pip 5 of one such element is received within the hinge socket 4 of another such toy element by a snap-fit which may be released by one or other of the toy elements being pulled apart.

FIG. 2 shows a similar arrangement to that shown in FIG. 1 being a plan view of a generally square constructional toy element 10 also having a corner abutment 11 within which is disposed a hinge socket 12 and a side abutment 13 and associated hinge pip 14 by which respective pairs of toy elements 10 may be connected via a snap-fit, but in a different manner. This is achieved in the manner as described with reference to FIG. 3, showing partly in section one edge of the element 10 in which it will be seen that the constructional toy element 10 of the invention is in the form of a generally hollow shell with the upper shell half 10 a being connected to the lower shell half 10 b via an ultrasonically welded joint 15 extending around most of the outer edge portions of the toy element 10 other than in the area around the hinge pip 14. The hinge pip 14 forms part of a resiliently moveable tongue 16 extending from part of the side abutment 13 in the lower shell half 10 b into an arcuate recess or mouth 17 in the upper shell half 10 a which therefore allows the tongue 16 and hence the hinge pip 14 to resiliently bend within the mouth portion 17 when adjacent such toy elements 10 are being assembled or disassembled. This arrangement has distinct advantages over the prior art arrangement shown in FIG. 1 in that the force needed to connect and disconnect adjacent pieces of the constructional toy elements does not depend upon the overall size of each piece or the amount of plastics material used in their construction, as in the case of the solid toy element shown in FIG. 1, but only upon the force necessary to deflect or bend the tongue 16 and pip 14 sufficient for the pip 14 to be captured or released by a respective hinge socket 12 in the corner abutment 11 of another such toy element 10. The hinge socket 12 may be formed of two parts or may instead be formed as a single piece in a similar manner to that of the hinge pip 14. However, the absence of a welded joint in the movable hinge pip 14, even though the toy element 10 is formed in two halves 10 a and 10 b, makes it much less likely that the tongue 16 and/or pip 14 will fail or break, since they are moulded or otherwise formed integrally within the lower shell half only, in the example shown.

From the foregoing it will be appreciated that the size and structural strength of the constructional toy element of the invention is independent of the mechanism by which the toy element can be joined to another such element, whereas there are practical limits to the size of solid constructional toy elements of the type described in D1. Even if such were to be manufactured using blow moulding or rotational moulding techniques to form hollow toy elements, they are generally unsuitable for small hand held objects and would still suffer from the potential presence of unwanted sprue or other imperfections at the bearing surfaces unless manufactured to sufficiently high standards in which sprue is avoided or other imperfections sufficiently minimised by the use of high-precision moulds or by the sprue being removed from the moulded product in a separate operation. In contrast, the invention avoids such problems by adopting the elegantly simple solution of separating the steps of joining each half of the toy element from the step of preforming the bearing surfaces in one or other of each half of the toy element so that the quality of the bearing surfaces is independent of the quality of the join between each half of the toy element, which may therefore be made of any required size without affecting the quality of the bearing surfaces and hence the ease with which pairs of such toy elements can be joined or separated via a snap-fit. 

1. A constructional toy element connectable in edge-to-edge relationship via a snap-fit to another such toy element to form a constructional toy, the toy element being of two-part construction comprising an at least partially hollow interior, edge portions of the element including respectively opposite male and female bearing surfaces in which either or both is formed on a resiliently deformable tongue formed integrally with one or other half of the constructional toy element whereby adjacent such toy elements may be interconnected together via a snap-fit. 